There’s something almost comforting in the knowledge that an album is going to be bad: a solace in having no expectations to be crushed, no metric by which to be underwhelmed. Benson Boone’s latest album may carry with it a tasteless cover, a poor reputation and some mishandled lead singles, but don’t let that fool you— ‘American Heart’ really is that plastic and banal. Though rarely earsplitting, there’s very little to keep anyone but the most cartoonish of patriots interested in one of the most unmemorable records of 2025.

Benson Boone certainly isn’t trying to be the hardest man to pick out of a police lineup: he does backflips, don’t you know, and recently brought Brian May out on stage at Coachella to perform Bohemian Rhapsody. ‘American Heart’ falls right in line with that performative persona, with Boone attempting to push these songs to be larger than life. Single ‘Mystical Magical’ gave us a taste of just how deep the singer would be diving into bombastic pop-rock via its hilariously overblown lyrical choices and prima donna falsettos— the song should be fun, but instead winds up feeling like corporate-mandated recreation.

“Moonbeam, ice cream

Taking off your blue jeans

Dancing at the movies

'Cause it feels so mystical, magical”

Benson Boone is clearly taking a dose of inspiration from 80s theatrical rock, but he’s less ‘Queen’ and more ‘20th-in-line-to-the-throne.’ ‘American Heart’ is drowning in lightheartedness— just see the bouncy electric pianos and ridiculous character portraits of ‘Mr Electric Blue’— but nonetheless feels cold and calculated in a way that absolutely neuters the project.

At a surface level, the album is the musical equivalent of a padded cell: it’s featureless, textureless, and might just have you begging for your sentence to end. Opener ‘Sorry I’m Here For Someone Else’ has all the makings of your standard, middle-of-the-road pop tune, but the track’s arrangement is trying much too hard to elevate the song into something bigger, something grander. Boone does very little to justify his overbearing drum sounds, grating synth tones or needlessly processed lead vocals, instead dumping these elements where they don’t belong— the interjection of “come on, what happened next, Benny?” must surely come from a paid actor, as no listener could be that invested in the tune. There’s a stark disconnect between the record’s aggressively average writing and flamboyant presentation that leaves Boone out to dry: even a more emotional cut like ‘Momma Song’ ultimately suffocates, buried under the weight of too much glitz and glamour.

Beneath its ultra-patriotic exterior, the songs on ‘American Heart’ are just about as safe and acceptable as they come. There’s little here that’ll make you want to tear your own ears off (in the same way that ‘Beautiful Things’ will), save for the irritating keys and awful vocal inflections of ‘Wanted Man:’ for the most part, the writing is 100% serviceable, and not a damn thing more. ‘Man In Me’ is probably the closest Boone comes to earning his pop-rock aesthetic, though the track would probably be the filler inclusion on a stronger record— ‘Reminds Me Of You’ is similarly passable, even if its Bruno Mars influence is painfully apparent. For the most part, ‘American Heart’ is the corporate music world on autopilot, churning out forgettable bottom-feeder tracks like ‘I Wanna Be The One You Call’ and ‘Take Me Home,’ safe in the knowledge they’ll be forgotten in a month— the latter is particularly egregious, wandering through a ballad so devoid of human connection, it may as well have been an original ChatGPT creation.

“Kiss me, kiss me slowly

Like you did when we were young

And hold me like you know me

Like the old days, walk me home”

In many ways, ‘American Heart’ really does cut right to the soul of its titular nation: just as the USA often seems beholden to its corporations, so too does Benson Boone’s latest work. It’s an album so obviously born in the conference room, designed to make a quick buck before being mercifully lost to time. By that metric, we might consider ‘American Heart’ a roaring success: critiquing the project as a piece of art, Benson Boone’s second LP is coming up short.